Charter delays are up on last year

The number of planes flying in and out of Edinburgh and Glasgow has increased, but growth has brought longer delays on more flights.

The Civil Aviation Authority figures show that more than a third of chartered flights failed to arrive within 15 minutes of schedule.

But BAA, which runs Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, defended its record and promised improvements.

The Civil Aviation Authority found that charter passengers waited an average of 25 minutes in Glasgow and 22 minutes in Edinburgh.

AIRPORT DELAYS Charter flights over 15 mins late: Glasgow 36%, Edinburgh 34% Average charter flight delay: Glasgow 25 mins, Edinburgh 22 mins Average scheduled flight delay: Glasgow 12 mins, Edinburgh 13 mins

The figures for April to June 2003 are worse than for the same time last year, but Alastair Smith, spokesman for BAA in Scotland, said the sites were victims of their own success.

"Both airports are nearing capacity. At Edinburgh traffic increased by 10% to 7.3m last year. At Glasgow it was 8m, that was an increase of 6%.

"We regonise this, that we're nearing capacity, but we're accelerating a �500m investment programme to extend taxiways and build more stands.

"We basically need more parking spaces for aircraft but we're in the process of building them."

He added that the expansion plan was being accelerated and pledged to reduce the delays.